COVID-19 cases down 8% to 1,146 in past week

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health said Tuesday that there were 1,146 additional COVID-19 cases reported in the past week. 

In a bulletin, the DOH said that an average of 164 cases were recorded daily from October 16 to 22. The agency noted that the average was 8% lower than the previous week's numbers.

Of the additional cases, 22 individuals had severe and critical illnesses. 

There were 272 patients in severe and critical conditions, accounting for 8.1% of the total COVID-19 admissions in the country. 

The Philippines had 2,970 active cases as of Monday. Over four million Filipinos have recovered from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020.

According to data from the DOH, only 11.8% of the 1,465 beds in intensive care units were utilized, and 16.9% of the 12,536 non-ICU beds were occupied. 

The health department also confirmed nine deaths in the past week.

More than 78.4 million Filipinos have received their coronavirus jabs. However, only 23.8 million have gotten booster shots. — Gaea Katreena Cabico